"The world is a mess. People are dying of obesity, and people are dying of starvation. Some of us are suffering from the loneliness of poverty, and others are aching in the loneliness of wealth. Too often, Christianity has only offered us life after death while the world is reall asking: Is there life before death? We are convinced that Jesus did not just come to prepare us to die but to teach us how to live - here... now. He came to show us the narrow way to life. And that's Good News to all of us who are groaning in the ghettoes of poverty and in the ghettoes of wealth. Let us be the midwives of another world. We are made to live for something bigger than ourselves - this thing we call the Kingdom of God... God's dream for the world. This is the realm where the last are first and the first are last, where the poor blessed and the peacemakers are the children of God. The whole Christian thing is not just about going up to heaven after we die, but it is about bringing God's Kingdom to earth. This is the gospel that should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. And it means revolution. It is a revolution that sets both the oppresses and the oppressors free, a revolution that dances and laughs... a revolution that aches with the world. It is a revolution not just for saints and prophets and celebrities, but a revolution of ordinary radicals who live in ways that do not conform to the patterns of this world be are transformed be the renewing of [their] minds. God give us a fresh imagination. Perhaps the world will calls us crazy. But if we are crazy it is because we refuse to be crazy in the same way that the world has gone crazy. And this Gospel of the poor and broken may fly in the face of much of the prosperity preaching that has come to mark Christianity in the West, but this is the Gospel of the baby refugee who was born in the middle of a genocide, who wandered the world with no place to lay His head, and who was jailed, tortured, and crucified on the cross of the empire in which He lived. May these songs lead us closer to Jesus of Nazareth, where folks said "nothing good could come." And may these songs lead us to the poor, in whom we will find Christ in His most distressing disguises... among the least of these. In these songs, may you encounter the Jesus who did not just come as a missonary to thte poor or as a charitable philanthropist, but who came as one who suffered. he came as a troublemaker and creator of holy mischief. he came as a King who ruled with a towel and played in the dort with kids. Its is this Jesus who bids us, dares us... come and follow. So sit. Dance. Shout. Sut listen... listen to the One who tells us if we really want to find our life then we should give it away. Listen to the small voice amis all the noise and clutter, that whispers to us that the best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them way. As we read the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other, we cannot help but ask: have we even begun to be Christians? Let us begin. Jesus, give us strength to live the things we preach and sing... and give us grace with ourselves and others when we fall short of who we want to be." - Shane Claiborne Activist, Recovering Sinner, and Author of The Irresistible Revolution.
thesimpleway.org
Comments (10)
If more people would just realize the value of having that faith in their lives, it wouldn't be like this. ^_^
Revolutions are for wheels.
I'm gonna go play in the dort.
Huzzah! Amen! =:)
Thank you for voting in the Xanga BEAUTY CONTEST!
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@relaxolgy - Thank you for holding said contest!
Dude.... your site is pink.
haha! Actually, the post was really good. Hit the proverbial mark. We should strive to BE like Christ to others in meeting needs physically and spiritually.
@Legendairy - Yes it is pink, for now, thank you.
@awth44 - yeah, the 1st part was only a joke... the REAL comment was the rest.
@Legendairy - Thank you, although I didn't write it, I just copied it. IT can be found on Delirious's new cd